Uprooted | The ongoing quest for identity

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by WMHT Web Editor on

Uprooted tries to answer the question: what is today’s Armenian identity and its evolution over time?

A personal and passionate film searching for answers in today’s world. Coloring the quest for identity, with interviews from unique and eclectic sources, exploring in parallel the lives of everyday people and their customs as we try to define the critical elements of identity and transmitted cultural memory.

Interspersed with musical punctuations, interviews with a wide spectrum of Armenians and prominent academics the film guides us through the general concepts of identity while I narrate the bridges between segments.

I have pursued the identity theme in all my films, as it is the critical and defining element of individuals and cultural collectives. I have further developed the identity theme in four films, as cultural memory transmitted through music.

Do myths and legends reinforce or distort cultural identity?

"I have been filming Uprooted part three of my “Armenian Trilogy” over the last few years and the film takes us on its final journey to new corners of the quest for identity."

The survival of Armenian identity is at the core of every aspect of Armenian life, as it has been mine. In the first film of my “Armenian Trilogy,” “Armenian Exile,” I explore my neglected and sometimes forgotten identity. In the second, “My Son Shall be Armenian,” with five traveling companions I explore the question of identity as we meet Genocide survivors in Armenia. In the part three of the Trilogy I probe deeper into the question of identity and transmission of memory. This quest is every cultural group’s inescapable journey, ultimately bridging all cultures in their path to thrive.